Yearly Archives: 2007

We have a nook in our pantry.  It’s near the back.  Where all good but useless items reside.

Today we decided to try out the food processor.  Cuts, slices and dices on command!  $59.99 at Sears a few years back – a Black and Decker special!

The salad was to be a coleslaw.  All we needed was to mash (This is somewhere between slice and full pulverize) the carrots and cabbage.

The box opened real easy!  “Smooth”.  Of course, we hadn’t taped it up last time we used it (and upon reflection we probably should have).  The instructions were near the top.

Jill looked them over and read them aloud.  “Place the handle to the left and lock into place.”  Somewhere around this point she made the observation that last time we had trouble with this part.  I place the bowl down and locked it in place.  Put the other pieces in place.

The machine would not start.  There is an automatic shutoff if every piece is not  properly installed.  We rertraced our steps.  I had been too handy!  Beginning at placing the bowl on the left, I had found notches and forced the assembly into place.  Another half turn and all would have been well.

Eventually the assembly began to look like the instruction picture. 

We inserted the coleslaw.  Most of it came out like mash.  Some didn’t — Jill’s still trying to correct that faux pas!  The carrots came out in round circles.  Not in shredded pieces.  I reinserted them.  After three or four tries we were much closer.

By this time Jill is slightly agitated.  OK, maybe a little more than slightly.  Her rationale had been that a food processor would be done in seconds compared to manually using a grater.  At around the 20 minute mark we repacked the individual parts (the whole is greater than the parts, but eventually they all fit in the box)!

Now, anyone want a slightly used (2 times that we remember — any more times and we would want to forget), still sharp (a whole cabbage or two and a few carrots are about all that this food processor has seen), and fully functional (depending on which function you want) food processor??

GOING FOR CHEAP!!

The last 24 hours I have had two impulses forwarded into my ife.

The first was from my friend, John Stuart.  This Sunday he will preach to our congregation.  His topic has variously been described as faith, risk and stepping out.  He will talk about “epiphany” — that which is seen of our lives above the surface that is reflective of “obsessio”, that which is below the surface which we fear.  Our memories of the fears of life need to be addressed.  Jesus has come to set us free, and that includes the dark, the repressed, the unseen and unwanted. 

Come on Sunday to hear a thought provoking sermon.

The same morning my wife and I will share a Sunday School class together.  The topic will be “Sabbath.”  For over two hours this noon we debated, agreed, discussed and generally wandered around the topic.  God instituted the Sabbath as a time of rest.  So, what is “rest”?  This is both an attitude and a day.  A day that is set aside — made holy.

Come a little earlier on Sunday (9:45) to get another thought provoking “sermon”  — of course, we call it teaching!

These have both been inspiring, thought provoking and transforming.  Not a bad thing in a day and age when we can sit at the computer for hours, digesting information and not learning a thing!

‘Tis the season to be full.

I’ve gained no new weight this year — but my middle seems a bit flabbier (a concession to trying to be a look-alike to Santa!).  So over the next few weeks desserts will be lessened and hopefully weight as well.

Christmas Day brought less than “fullness”.  As we drove back from Rosetown, an hour away, we entered Kindersley later in the evening — right past the Super 8 motel.  Not a car, truck or any other vehicle in sight.  Mental note for next year — I’ll bet motels are cheap on Christmas Day!

Hospitals seem to benefit from the holidays.  Usually Boxing Day and the day after New Year’s Day.  I guess people wait until medical personnel they know are back in town. 

I understand that our hopsital’s bed’s were all taken up by patients.  As I walked the hallway today I was practicing my “queen’s wave” as I passed open doors.  The very same hospital where, in the summer, only one bed was occupied for at least a week!

I asked a group of people (about 60 0f them) yesterday to lift their hands if they made New Year’s resolutions.

Not a hand was lifted! 

Is this a case of cynicism?  Or a recognism of reality?  Is one year too long to hold onto a discipline?  Or are we all in a world where promises have been so misused and abused — we don’t want to get caught up in the hypocrisy around us?

Don’t have the answers — not even sure I have the questions! 

But there is something here that may bring back the question of sabbath.  We have turned the one day of reflection that our society allows itself each year into a non-day!  Unless we are constantly, week by week, reflecting on our lives, it’s no wonder a year end reflection and resolution time falls so flat.